Secure comms for robotic systems in development for Army
NewsFebruary 11, 2020
NEW YORK, N.Y. Persistent Systems, LLC announced that it won a $5.4M contract by the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command C5ISR Center to develop Protected Communications for Manned-Unmanned Teams (MUM-T).
The Army aims to build a next-generation Optionally Manned Fighting Vehicle (OMFV) that can be networked with up to four unmanned Remote Combat Vehicles (RCVs) and their assorted sensor/weapons payloads – and, in turn, networked with the broader force and command structure. For this to work, a secure communications network is paramount.
The MPU5 with its Wave Relay mobile ad hoc networking (MANET) was previously selected by the Next Generation Combat Vehicle cross functional team (NGCV-CFT) and the Ground Vehicle Systems Center (GVSC) as the MANET network of choice for RCV Phase 1 and has been under evaluation by the Army for over a year.
According to the company, Persistent's MPU5 forms a scalable, peer-to-peer network that does not rely on external communications infrastructure to operate or run through a vulnerable central node. The MPU5, which has already been deployed on various unmanned platforms, has an onboard Android computer, and a 3×3 MIMO configuration, a built-in HD video encoder/decoder.
